Tri-City Americans open 7-game road trip with loss to Kamloops
The Kamloops Blazers scored three goals in the first 8 minutes, 22 seconds of the game, cruising to a 5-2 Western Hockey League home win Tuesday over the Tri-City Americans.
Kamloops (24-15-1-1, 50 points) got an outstanding performance from backup goaltender Dylan Ferguson, who finished with 36 saves.
Tri-City (22-17-3-0, 47 points), playing the first of a seven-game road trip, trailed 3-1 after the first and 4-2 after two periods. The Americans had two power plays in the third, but came up empty on both.
Michael Rasmussen scored his team-leading 28th goal for Tri-City late in the first period, while Jordan Topping added a second-period goal at 9:32.
Travis Walton, Collin Shirley, Jermaine Loewen, Nick Chyzowski and Devon Sideroff all scored for Kamloops, which is second in the B.C. Division behind Prince George (56 points). Shirley also handed out two assists.
Americans goalie Evan Sarthou allowed the three first-period Kamloops goals on eight shots. Sarthou finished the night with 19 saves.
Tri-City will begin its East Division road swing Friday at Prince Albert.
Blazers 5, Americans 2
Tri-City | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | 2 |
Kamloops | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | 5 |
First — 1, Kam, Walton 4 (Holowko), 2:05. 2, Kam, Shirley 17 (Chyzowski), 3:39. 3, Kam, Loewen 5 (McDonald, Zazula), 8:22 (pp). 4, TC, Rasmussen 28 (Topping, Bafaro), 17:19. Penalty — TC bench (too many men, served by Sawchuk), 7:19.
Second — 5, Chyzowski 11 (Shirley, Sideroff), 6:30. 6, TC, Topping 4 (Sandhu, Coghlan), 9:32. Penalties — None.
Third — 7, Kam, Sideroff 24 (Shirley), 19:26 (en, sh). Penalties — Smith, Kam (high-sticking), 7:47; Benjafield, Kam (hooking), 18:16.
Shots — TC 10-13-13 — 38. Kam 8-10-6 — 24. Power plays — TC 0-2. Kam 1-1. Goalies — TC, Sarthou 5-5-2-0 (23 shots-19 saves). Kam, Ferguson 10-6-0-1 (38-36). Referees — Mike Langin and Steve Papp. A — 3,290.
This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Tri-City Americans open 7-game road trip with loss to Kamloops."